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Matthew Thor

@mjthor

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trying to ride bikes as often as I can while I still can
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Colorado Trail Race ITT ✅ 6 days, 14 hours, 35 minutes 🚨 HATERS GO HOME DEVASTATED 🚨 Okay, I'll stop with that joke. Probably my biggest and only "hater" is me. I tend to set really high expectations for myself, especially with these races. And while I kind of relish that dynamic and it serves to keep me motivated, it also means that there's seldom a "good enough" result. You can always go faster, do better, optimize something, etc. But honestly? I've never been happier to "just finish" a race/route. (I hate that phrasing, btw, as if finishing a route like this isn't enough, or even riding part of it, or even getting out the door for a daily bike ride or walk or whatever isn't enough.) I had never even owned a "proper" mountain bike until April of this year, and before moving to the mountains shortly before that, I'd get altitude sickness if I slept at >10k ft elevation. I've been to the clinic in Breckenridge a few times -- the last time I was there in 2023, staying just above 10k ft, they told me they would've hospitalized me immediately if I wasn't fully coherent and hadn't been skiing all day. My pulse ox was 86. So while the hater in me definitely wanted to go faster, I'm going to choose to be proud of this one. The CT is technical, unforgiving, unpredictable, demanding and its average elevation is something like 10,300ft (I don't know if that's for the hiking route or the bike route, but whatever, it's up there). To come from where I was earlier this year and finish in <7 days is good enough for me (at least until next time 😈). Also, fun fact: I'm pretty sure I'm the only person to complete this version of the CTR route. The route changed from 2025 to 2026, but then the grand depart had to ride an additional re-route due to the Willow Fire outside Leadville. Those restrictions were lifted a few days before I started my ITT, so I didn't do the re-route and did the "OG" 2026 route. I'll never win any of these races, so I often say that I'm only competing with myself, but this time it was extra true! Thanks for all the messages, support and love. It's ultimately a pretty silly way to spend one's time, but it's always fun to share the silliness. Su by @mjthor
21
a month ago
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"Where are you from?" It's often a pointed question, sometimes even loaded. I've done a lot of different things with my life and have lived in quite a few places, and my would-be answer always comes with some qualification and only gets more complex and ambiguous as I get older. "I spent a lot of my childhood in ..." "I went to school at ..." "We've spent the last five years in ..." If you peel it back a bit, the question really points to the idea of self. Identity. As a person I'm fundamentally a collection of experiences and circumstances, but the idea of self is something more than that; some combination of construction, cultivation, curation. And when someone asks "Where are you from?" it's up to you which version of yourself to respond with. It's hard for me to think about Omaha without thinking about bikes. I've ridden bikes my whole life, but my life has never come close to revolving around them as much as it has since moving to Omaha. I don't think I'd ever ridden a gravel road before moving here. @erinathor and I rode all over Chicago together, but never for the sole purpose of recreation. We constantly did that in Omaha. I've also never had a fraction as many bike-riding friends, many of whom very quickly became close friends, as I've had in Omaha. I guess I'm writing this post to say: thank you to all of our bike friends for making mine and Erin's time in Omaha special. Thank you @omgravel for fostering an amorphous group of adventurous, bike-riding weirdos of all varieties and preferences, and with all sorts of answers to the "Where are you from?" question. And at the heart of it all, for me, thank you to @ponderosacyclery for tirelessly supporting and inspiring a massive community of people who ride bikes in Omaha (and well beyond). Riding bikes in Omaha changed my life, and not only did that start with them, but they've also been there every step of the way. So while my answer to "Where are you from?" is never very committal and sometimes even evasive, I have no hesitation in saying this: as a cyclist, I'm from Omaha. taken in Omaha, Nebraska by @mjthor
5
6 months ago
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Tour Divide ✅ 22 days, 11 hours, 27 minutes 27hundredwhatever miles, 160somethingthousand feet of climbing, an endless variety of terrain and rough surfaces. The numbers don't really make sense. It's impossible to quantify the challenges of this route/race. I've been pretty much a corpse since finishing, which is why I'm only just making a post now. It was an unbelievable experience that will be difficult to put into words -- I'll use my otherwise dormant creative writing degree to make an attempt at some point in the future. For now, I'm just happy to say that I finished, that I pushed myself, pushed others (@fgeof "you better keep your lead this time" as I sent it at 6:30pm from @brushmountainlodge to Steamboat 😆) and accomplished my goal of having fun throughout (just don't check my message history with @erinathor). And I'd like to think, or at least hope, that that attitude of having fun regardless of the circumstances was felt by the other racers I crossed paths with. After all, if you're not having fun, what's the point? 🤙 taken in Antelope Wells Port of Entry by @mjthor
38
a year ago
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Since scratching from the @colorado_trail_race a couple of weeks ago, countless people have been asking me: "How does it feel to be a quitter?" "How would you rate the shame you've brought upon your family on a scale of 1-10?" "You've scratched from 2/3 of the Triple Crown races this year, are you going for the trifecta?" "Now that you're super old (and still very dumb), do you think you'll ever finish another race?" So in an effort to silence all of my haters (again, they are numerous, they are vocal, and honestly they're really mean) I'm going to embark upon an Individual Time Trial (ITT, if u know) on the Colorado Trail starting this Sunday. Probably at 4:00am MDT, but we'll see if I wake up on time. You can track me via the link in my bio that's still there from the last time I quit this race. ----- OK jokes aside, I have no haters (I hope), and it's just a long bike ride. It's not that serious, but I do want to finish. I'm gonna go northbound this time, Durango to Denver, in part because the finish is closer to my house, ideally increasing my odds that @erinathor will still pick me up and not make me ride home. And also because I just rode 2/3 of the route southbound, so I wanted to trick my gullible brain into thinking the route is new! and different! Oh, and for what it's worth, I _am_ capable of learning from my experiences: I'm starting with more food storage capacity and a different, more reliable, warmer sleeping pad this time. Let's do it! 💝 by @mjthor
20
a month ago
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Colorado Trail Race '26 ❌ Welp, another race, another scratch. I try not to dwell on or (especially) get upset about the past, but this one was tough. Realistically, though, scratches are part of these races. If I'm truly pushing myself and seeing how fast I can go on a route, I'm always walking a razor's edge, taking risks to go faster. Sometimes those risks don't pan out, but that's part of the game. And it's way more fun to take the risk. I bailed at the end of day 4, after getting through Sargents Mesa, one of the notoriously roughest stretches of the trail. My sleeping pad was slowly leaking air (a calculated risk -- I thought it was fine after some stress testing, pictured) which meant I was cold at night. I ate extra food on night 3 just to stay warm, so I was also running low on food (another risk, as carrying extra food is paying a big weight penalty) with the next reliable resupply 50 miles away. I thought I had enough. I was wrong. I really like the experience of pushing myself to extremes to see how I handle it, so maybe it would've been interesting to keep going. But I do these races for recreation, ostensibly for fun, so there's a limit of how close to "holy fuck I might literally die" I want to get. I think I would've been scary cold that night, with a considerable distance to cover the next day to get more food. I had a relatively easy bailout, so I decided to take it. Live to fight another day. In any case, it was a fun 4 days, and I really treasure the experience and privilege of getting to attempt these things. Also, the "another day" I "lived to fight for" may come pretty soon... by @mjthor
12
2 months ago
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Hi. I'm doing the @colorado_trail_race. It starts Sunday at 4am MDT. This is what my bike will look like. This year's route is shortened and more paved than usual due to wildfires, but it's still 515 miles and 67,000 ft of climbing (that's a lot). And the trail was designed for hikers, not goofballs on mountain bikes with luggage strapped to them. I'm very excited, and I feel very prepared, but I am also very anxious. I also hope that you will send me some energy by watching my dot. There's a link to do so in my instagram bio. As always, no matter what transpires, I'm gonna have fun. 🫶 by @mjthor
37
2 months ago
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Tour Divide 2026 ❌ Triple Crown 2026 ❌ It's been a couple of weeks, so my skin has healed, but saddle sores and chafing claimed yet another victim. I've done my best to unpack the what and the why, but it doesn't really matter. Because while it definitely was not the experience I had hoped for, I actually kind of love that. One of the reasons I'm so drawn to ultra races like the Tour Divide is that nobody can control and predict everything, so the result is never guaranteed. I've spent so much of my life trying to optimize for outcomes, control my environment, make sure you show up to work on time! don't miss that deadline! or get fired! or fail the class! or ... But in the absence of a guaranteed outcome, I'm forced to focus on "the experience." The process. What's right in front of me. And that's really all we ever really have: what's right in front of us. "You can't go back and you can't stand still" but it's way too easy to forget that. Ultra races force me to remember. So anyway, shit happens. And that's awesome. That's life. And I'm definitely still doing @colorado_trail_race and @azt300_800 even though it won't be the "tRipLe cRoWn oF biKepAcKiNg" without a Tour Divide finish. But who needs that? I honestly like it better this way. Pictured: my Holland-Lake-at-sunset mosquito defense Not pictured: my saddle sores and chafing (stop asking, @jjjjustin!!!!!! 😤 ) by @mjthor
10
3 months ago
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Tour Divide starts Friday at 7am MDT! Tracking link is in my bio. If you're tracking me, please send me messages or comments or likes or whatever. I'm really excited, but it's a really difficult thing to do, and it's super helpful knowing friends and family are thinking about and supporting me. I wanted to say more, but I'm sitting in a hotel room with @kowa_bunga and @colin_hartt and these children won't leave me alone for more than 30 seconds. (There's nothing more I really need to say anyway other than thank you to everyone who has made it possible for me to be here again. I love you all.) Oh yeah: follow @erinathor too. She'll be posting some updates on my behalf! 🤟 taken in Banff, Alberta by @mjthor
46
4 months ago
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Ten days until the Tour Divide grand départ, and I'm incredibly excited, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't also pretty anxious. After last year's race, I very quickly decided that I wanted to do it again, and I've been thinking about and preparing for it pretty much constantly since then. So of course I want to do "well" or at least I want to do "better." Whatever that means. Most of the point of this race, to me, is that neither I nor anyone else can control it. And even though I've done the race before, am I really doing it _again_? So much can happen in a year. The GPS coordinates might be mostly the same, and the time of year might be the same, but is anything else really unchanged? I'm honestly not entirely sure why I'm doing this race other than I really, really like riding my bike. But do I really need a reason beyond that? I could come in first, I could come in last: who cares? (I mean, I kinda do.) I'm gonna enjoy the ride regardless, and I hope to share some of that enjoyment and adventure with my friends and family. So, okay, I guess I do know why I'm doing this race. I'll post tracking info once it's available, and I'll try to share what I can both here and with @erinathor. This is a ridiculous and insanely privileged thing to do with my life, but it's also a challenge. And if you're still reading this, your support means a lot to me. by @mjthor
40
4 months ago
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Colorado: so far, so good taken in Boulder County by @mjthor
6
5 months ago
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One year ago today, I set out for the longest bike ride of my life motivated by one question: can I actually race the Tour Divide? I'd done plenty of paved century rides with other people, but I had no idea how my body would respond to 125 solo miles and 8,200ft of climbing on mostly gravel roads. And could I do that every day for three weeks while carrying all of my own supplies? A year later and I'm writing this post from an AirBNB, strategically getting out of our just-listed house for the first day of showings. Two very life-altering days separated cleanly by an even trip around the sun. I don't spend a ton of time reflecting on the past, so it's wild to remember how much can change in a year. It feels strange and honestly a little bittersweet to be leaving Omaha after only two years. Long enough to get settled, make some great friends, get comfortable, have life "slow down" a little bit. And short enough that it still feels like we moved here yesterday. But if all goes to plan, @erinathor and I will be moving to Boulder, Colorado within a month or so, and I'm not sure I could overstate our excitement about that. Boulder is an incredible place to ride bikes, and it would be a shame to let my future altitude acclimation go to waste, so... I'm going to attempt the "bikepacking triple crown" of races this year. Of course there's still a lot I can't control (namely the weather) but with the experience I have from the Tour Divide last summer, I think I can go faster. A lot faster. The other two races, the @colorado_trail_race and Arizona Trail Race @azt300_800, are known to be really technical, rugged and challenging. My MTB skills (or lack thereof, aka hike-a-bike) will definitely be pushed to their limits. And that sounds awesome to me. It's a really rare opportunity to even attempt these three races, and I want to do a better job of sharing the adventure. I've got some new toys to help capture it (swipe for some examples 😆), so let me know what you want to see! Alright Erin is gonna yell at me if I type any more words. Photos are a mix of "since I last posted," 360 cam testing (that's a raven btw) and a photo from da big ride a year ago by @mjthor
18
7 months ago
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2025 ✅ It's been a long way, literally and figuratively. A lot of bikes, a lot of Bento, a lot of new adventures, a lot of new friends (in a lot of new places). And a ton of fun. Looking forward to some big, higher-elevation plans that are starting to take shape for 2026. Gonna need to find (and figure out how to ride) a full-squish MTB 👀 p.s. never thought I'd say this, but I wish I took more selfies this year. @erinathor and I have gone on so many rides with so many incredible new friends, and I wish I took more selfies with said friends. Perhaps a "resolution" is in the making... by @mjthor
3
9 months ago
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